The Wisconsin Idea - spread through the university system and filtered down to those who pass through their doors into the Media, Politics and Education.
As explained by Adlai Stevenson, "the Wisconsin tradition meant more than a simple belief in the people. It also meant a faith in the application of intelligence and reason to the problems of society. It meant a deep conviction that the role of government was not to stumble along like a drunkard in the dark, but to light its way by the best torches of knowledge and understanding it could find."[1]
Yes, unlike the years of darkness when Thomas Jefferson stumbled along in the White House and at the University of Virginia.
You can always spot a liberal, overselling the nostrum and short-selling the Founders. Poor Ben Franklin; if only he'd been smort like us!